Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah nullifies KXIP opener’s brilliant 94 as Mumbai Indians survive by 3 runs to fight another day for a berth in playoffs.

It was a queer sort of game. The side that had multiple convulsions amid a couple of adrenaline burts while batting ended up on the winning side. The side that had seemed to be cruising to victory, with an India player in the form of his life batting in the 90s, froze at the finish line to end up on the losing side.

In the end, Mumbai Indians kept their campaign alive by a margin of 3 runs at Wankhede Stadium, and also leapt in to the top-four in the points table. And Kings XI Punjab have now lost their fourth successive game.

The visitors’ batting has been basically their opening pair of KL Rahul and Chris Gayle. Get the two, and you are more or less through. MI removed Gayle (18 off 11) reasonably early in the chase of 187. But they could not get Rahul, not till the business end at least.

Making his sixth fifty of the IPL season, Rahul was batting as he pleased. He was charging spinners to loft for boundaries, he was cutting crisp and late, he was pulling with command, he was even reverse-scooping pacers for fours over short third man.

When he hit two such shots off Ben Cutting in the 18th, KXIP needed 23 from the last two overs. Should have been easy for a player of Rahul’s class in such form. Only one of those was to be bowled by Jasprit Bumrah.

It was Bumrah who had started MI’s comeback in the 17th, with 42 needed from 24, and as many as nine wickets remaining. Rahul and Aaron Finch (46 off 35) had added 111 in just over 12 overs.

Enter Bumrah. Finch tried to slam him out of the ground, only got vertical distance, lots of it, and Hardik Pandya did very well to not put down the steepler under pressure. Three balls later, Marcus Stoinis was only shaping up to hook but the brute of a bouncer had already taken the glove through to the keeper. Four runs and two wickets off the over.

Rahul went hard after Cutting in the next over, but Bumrah was back for the 19th. This time, he was all full with his lengths, varying his pace. A shot away from a hundred, Rahul could only mishit a slower one to long-off to exit for 94 off 60.

Kings XI had sent in Axar Patel ahead of Yuvraj Singh, but none of the two could do anything against Bumrah.

Mitchell McClenaghan had 16 to defend off the final over, and that was too much of a cushion against a nowheadless, panicked Kings XI line-up.

Familiar pattern

Earlier, after losing their sixth home toss in seven games, MI’s innings followed a strange, and also familiar, pattern. Suryakumar Yadav gave them a flyer, a bunch of wickets followed. That has usually tended to stall their innings this season but this time, they had Kieron Pollard.

Now Pollard had a season disappointing enough to be left out for four successive games. However, another MI overseas all-rounder, JP Duminy, barely got a bat, and hardly bowled in the matches he played. And MI brought Pollard back against Kings XI in place of Duminy.

The big man came in at 71for 4. By the time he left, that had been turned in to 152 for 6 in a matter of seven overs. He had not scored more than 28 in six previous attempts in this IPL. Yesterday, he mowed 50 off 23. Eighteen and 17 came off successive overs from Ankit Rajpoot and Marcus Stoinis.

Read also:Team jersey: The fabric of sport Krunal Pandya chipped in with 32 off 23, but once those two were gone, MI squandered the momentum once more. Hardik Pandya and Ben Cutting could not do much against Andrew Tye (4/16 off four) and R Ashwin (2/18 off three), the best Kings XI bowlers on the night.

It was Tye who had ruined MI’s start, moving a full one in to rattle Evin Lewis’ stumps in the fourth over, and then removing Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar. Ashwin held himself and Tye back while Pollard was on the rampage, but returned in the 16th over to have him hole out to long-off with a wide and full delivery that made him reach out. MI could eke out 35 runs from the last five overs, but that was to be just enough.

The dismissal of Rahul, who batted brilliantly and struck 10 fours and three sixes, effectively fazed Punjab's chase with the other batsmen at the crease unable to take the visitors home. Photo by Raju Shinde/BCCL

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